Replaying The Moon Landing In San Pedro

They call it “Valley of the Moon” for a reason: walking around the grey-ish and
red-ish rocks of this region of the Atacama desert is definitely an out of this
world experience. It’s not the first time that I feel like a space traveler
during this trip but this landing was definitely the less Earth-like of all.
Personally, I would have used Mars as a comparison rather than the Moon (NASA
is even using the region as the test site for its Red Planet rovers) but this
is probably nitpicking.

The Valley of the Moon is situated a few minutes from San Pedro de Atacama,
a small touristy city in northern Chile. The 25 hours bus ride from Valparaiso
was excruciating but good travel companions made the journey easier. The surroundings
of San Pedro are pretty incredible and there are a lot of day trips to do. I
started right away on the first day with the Valley and continued with a busy
second day starting at 4am!

A two hours bus ride takes you to 4900m high to a geyser fields. Do not expect
water columns rising from the ground as this is more bubbling water with a lot
of vapor. But because we arrived very early on site, the sun was barely lighting
up the place and combined with the vapors, we were bathed in a blue
atmosphere. Did I mention it was freezing? Fortunately, the temperature had (barely)
risen above zero when it was time to take the plunge in a hot spring. Unfortunately,
“warm spring” is how they should have named it.

The afternoon went on with a visit of the Atacama salt flats and a swim in a
salt lake. Really funny experience where even swimming becomes a struggle as
you cannot keep your feet down in the water!

The day finally ended with a long look at the star. The Atacama desert is famous
amongst astronomers for its incredible clear sky due to the high altitude and
low humidity. This means that the region is perfect to build telescopes and
learn more about the night sky. A man as organized a star tour which I would
recommend. It’s located at his house where he installed telescopes and give
explanations about space and constellations. It’s well known and easy to find
in town.

San Pedro was incredible with some of the most special landscapes I’ve seen.
While it is in the middle of nowhere, this is a nowhere you have to visit
on any trip to Chile!

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I'm Maxime, a tech entrepreneur who loves to travel! Traveling has always been
part of my life and I've been to many awesome
places. I love discovering new cultures, witnessing the beauty of our planet and
trying out crazy stuff!Follow me on Twitter